Hermione is Kidnapped!
by Jeniveela
Summary: Hermione is kidnapped, and not by who you would think...Please R&R.
1. Prologue: How Hermione was Kidnapped

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Prologue: How Hermione was Kidnapped

Hermione lay awake in the Gryffindor's girls' dormitory. As usual, she had come to bed late last night since she had spent so much time studying and doing extensively researched papers. 

She was always the last one to bed because of her nearly obsessive-compulsive studying. If she had been any other Gryffindor student doing anything other than studying and working, a prefect would have been telling her off for it and sending her to bed.

But since she was a fellow bookworm, workaholic, and know-it-all (like most prefects were), they let her stay up late often into the wee hours of the morning to read and work. 

More than once she had stayed up so long that she had fallen asleep over her books only to awaken a few hours later to find her warm face plastered to the page of a book.

Tonight, however, was one of those rare nights when she managed to finish her homework before three in the morning. When she finished her homework, she put it all away neatly into her book bag, put her book bag under her bed, then changed clothes in the dark of the Gryffindor girls' dormitory. Since even the dark didn't provide much privacy in the dormitory, Hermione got dressed while sitting on her canopy, four-post bed with the curtains drawn around it. She could never be sure that there weren't eyes watching her in the dark.

After her usual before bed ritual, she then settled into her comfortable, warm bed and fell fast asleep. Usually. But tonight, for some reason, she was unable to sleep. Perhaps it was just because of how unusually early she was going to bed that she wasn't quite ready to sleep.

She just lay in her bed, staring blankly at the crimson curtains drawn around her bed. She watched shadows from the flickering flames of the fire dancing in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory. The only noise in the room came from the merrily crackling fire…and from some girl's snoring coming from a bed nearby. Other than that, the room was quiet and peaceful.

A few minutes had gone by, and Hermione was drifting off into a stupor, her eyelids getting heavy as she was about to drift off to sleep.

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Whoosh.

Her dark eyes flickered open slightly. It sounded as if the fire in the hearth had suddenly flared up, as if someone had thrown in an extra log. Thinking that it was nothing more than that, she turned over and started to go back to sleep when she noticed the low, crackling, hissing sound, like a badly tuned radio. 

Again, she turned back around, squinting at the gap in the curtains around the bed. She saw nothing but the shadows of the flames dancing on the wall. 

Sshhh…Sshhh…Sshhhh….

Hermione blinked her eyes and rubbed them. She waited a few seconds longer, holding her breath.

Sshhh…Sshhh…Ssshhhh…

She heard it again. The sound, the sound like the soft hiss of a robe over the wooden floor as its wearer dragged his or her feet slowly and laboriously as he (or she) walked, like each step took a great amount of effort. Either that, or someone was trying to walk across the floor with painstaking stealth and was failing miserably.

__

Sshhh…Ssshhh…Ssshhhh…

Finally, she slowly, slowly, pushed herself up on her elbows, then got to her knees and crawled slowly to the edge of her bed. The mattress creaked slightly under her as she did so. She parted the curtains and cautiously peered out into the dark of the dormitory. 

She only saw the fire in the fireplace, the girls' beds, and a big, worn-out armchair pushed in the corner of the dormitory. It was how the girls' dormitory usually looked. Nothing looked out of the ordinary. 

__

Whump!

Hermione jumped. Actually, she was bounced. Her heart started racing wildly. _Something had landed on her bed._ She whirled around-

Her blood turned to ice water as she felt the sharp prick of a wand tip against the back of her neck. Her attacker's arm was wrapped around her neck to stop her from moving.

A voice, silky with malevolence, hissed in her ear. It was a voice as cold and hard as ice. 

"Move or scream, and I'll kill you."


	2. In Which They Realize that Hermione is G...

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Chapter 2: In Which They Realize that Hermione is Gone…

Several hours later…

The slanting rays of the glowing, rosy light of dawn fell across the woven rug on the girls' dormitory floor. The fire in the hearth had smouldered down to glowing cinders long before then.

Most girls in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory were just beginning to awaken and get ready for breakfast in the Great Hall, one by one. Like Hermione Granger, most of them quietly got dressed behind the curtains of their canopy beds, and then left their beds so that they could take care of their vanity issues in front of the mirrors, talking with other girls.

Hermione Granger was usually seen up and about long before the other girls. She was always fixing her bed neatly so that the House Elves wouldn't have to do that. She was always preaching to them about the evils of keeping House Elves, and trying to make them feel guilty by not making their beds or cleaning up after themselves. Of course, it never worked. Hermione and her SPEW organization were (for the most part) ignored and seen as a nuisance.

Strangely enough, no one noticed the absence of the 'Lone Crusader for House Elf Rights' as she had been dubbed. No, the girls in the Gryffindor girls' dormitory were far too busy chatting and fixing their hair and makeup to notice that one of their numbers was missing. They were too busy talking about what Whats-her-face was wearing yesterday, and what Whats-her-face was doing at lunch. No one bothered to ask about Hermione. No one ever did.

There was only one person who mentioned something about Hermione.

"Oh, this is the book I borrowed from whats-her-face," one of the girls, Maria, remarked as she rummaged through her book bag, cramming it with whatever she could fit in it. When her friend, Parvati, gave her a strange look, she said, "You know, whats-her-face with the bushy hair, the brainy girl. This is her book. Here," she shoved the book (which happened to be _Hogwarts: A History_) at Sara, "go give it back to her."

Parvati shrugged and took the book. She walked across the room to Hermione's bed, which still had the curtains drawn around it. With a brisk flick of her wrist, she whisked the curtain aside. 

Hermione still appeared to be sleeping with the red blankets, which were embroidered with gold thread, pulled over her head.

"Hermione, Maria's returning your book," Parvati said to the sleeping form hidden underneath the blankets. 

She waited, expecting Hermione to groggily stir, push the heavy blankets off of her head, then turn to look at her, squinting, like she always did on the rare occasions that someone had to wake her up. But the prone form beneath the blankets didn't even move.

"Hey, Hermione!" Parvati repeated louder. "I've got your book that Maria borrowed from you." 

When she still didn't wake up, she leaned forward and shook her, saying her name again and again.

"Hermione! Hermione, wake up!" Parvati said, shaking her. Finally, she just threw off the blankets covering her and gasped.

Hermione was gone. A pillow was what she thought was Hermione beneath the covers. (A/N: Which was a big surprise for her, but not so much for my readers.)

*~*~*~*

Meanwhile…

Hermione was coming around. She was aware that her head throbbed painfully; she could feel a lump the size of a golf ball on the side of her head and felt the warm, sticky blood trickling down her face.

Slowly, she forced herself to open her heavy eyelids. When she opened her eyes, what she saw was not much better than not seeing at it at all. At first she thought that she had been blinded, for a sea of darkness surrounded her, and cold, growing panic began to build in her chest.

The first thought that ran through her mind when she opened her eyes was, "Oh no! I've been kidnapped, and I'm blind! I'll never be able to escape!"

But then she realized that her surroundings were only appeared dark because there was no light source anywhere in her- in her _confinement_. There were no windows either.

When her eyes adjusted to the extremely dim room, she saw that it was a small, bare room. The walls were made of blocks of stone. Water trickled down them in small rivulets. The only noise in the confinement other than her wheezing, panicked breath was the drip drip dripping of water.

After she observed her surroundings, she realized that she was chained down to a chair. Ropes and chains bound her securely down to the chair. The knots in the ropes appeared to be tight. They hardly gave her room enough to take a deep breath without cutting into her. All of the chains were padlocked. Well, whoever had imprisoned her was taking every precaution to make sure that she didn't get away.

__

Well, no duh. Hermione thought. _You only kidnap someone if you don't want them getting away from you. They wouldn't just let me walk around free. But in this cell, I could never get away, even if I wasn't chained down. Surely they must have realized that. Whoever is imprisoning me went through way too much trouble. But why was I kidnapped anyway?_

And who was the one who kidnapped her? 

It came to her instantly. Who else could it be but Volde- You-Know-Who? Of course. It was a simple plot. Capture Hermione and let the great Harry Potter try to rescue her so that Volde- You-Know-Who could destroy him.

Unfortuantely, it wasn't as simple as that.

Minutes slipped away, and Hermione's head became clearer. She thought that her head wounds had stopped bleeding. The pain had abated somewhat, so she was able to concentrate better on other matters, like how to escape…or perish trying. Before she could ponder the subject of escaping too much, however, she suddenly jumped (or jumped as much as the heavy ropes and chains tying her down would allow) as she heard a loud clink, like the sound of metal on metal, or perhaps-

__

A key! Someone is unlocking the door! Hermione thought, her heart hammering with excitement, fear, and anticipation. She noticed for the first time that there actually was a door in the small cell. The door was made of a solid slab of stone, made so well, and concealed so cleverly that it seemed to blend into the wall. _Now I'll finally know for certain who kidnapped me!_

She heard the groaning, creaky squeal from outside, like that of rusty hinges, and seconds later, the door swung open slowly, very slowly, as if it took the person outside a lot of effort to open it.

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Well, it should, Hermione thought. _It _is _made out of stone, after all_.

As the stone door swung laboriously open, she saw two things. One: She saw a black, wrough-iron gate that had been swung open outside of her door, which she guessed was an extra precaution in case she miraculously managed to get the inner stone door open. Whoever owned this institution must have been a completely paranoid security freak.

Two: She saw her captor standing in the doorway, the dark figure stepping out of the dim, flickering, inconsistant fire light of the corridor into the shadows of the cell. 

It was the last person she would have expected to be her captor.

When she found her voice, Hermione cried out in shock. "It's you!"


	3. Chapter 3: In Which Hermione Learns of h...

Chapter 3: In Which Hermione Learns of Her Captor

Standing in the doorway was none other than Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic. He was a short man with light blue eyes and rumpled gray hair that was crammed under a lime-green bowler. For some reason, he appeared tall to Hermione now and broader shouldered.

When his eyes met hers, he gave her a strange, small, distant smile and removed his bowler hat.

"Hello, Miss Granger," he said quietly as he stepped into the small cell. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hermione couldn't exactly say the same. She could only gape, open-mouthed, in astonishment and shock. 

"You're the one who kidnapped me?" she blurted out before she could stop herself. "But- but it couldn't have possibly been you! You- you're the Minister of Magic, and the Minister of Magic would never- would never…"

But her words utterly failed her, and her voice trailed off, unable to finish. This was too much to believe.

Fudge's eyes widened innocently as he waved off her near accusation.

"Of course not, Miss Granger," he replied. "As you said so yourself, I am the Minister of Magic, and I would never kidnap an innocent little girl like yourself." He chuckled under his breath. "Oh, no, I would never do that. It never looks good for the Minister of Magic to go around kidnapping children, does it? Well, all I have to say, Miss Granger, is that this is just a little misunderstanding. You can go free…"

"I can?" Hermione said, startled.

"…Yes. As soon as you answer some simple questions for me," Fudge replied, smiling that innocent, unthreatening smile. His voice was calm and coaxing. "You're a very smart girl, Miss Granger. I know that you have very good grades too. I'm sure that you can answer these little questions for me."

"What kind of questions?" Hermione asked, narrowing her eyes slightly.

"They are questions that I am sure that you have the answers to," Fudge said simply. He went on conversationally, "After all, you have the answers to almost every question in your classes back at Hogwarts, right, Miss Granger?"

She said nothing to this. She merely stared blankly.

"Oh, yes, I've heard all about the great, smart Hermione Granger," Fudge went on. "Yes, I hear that the teachers are greatly fond of you, Miss Granger. They tell me about you all the time, how clever you are, and what an extraordinary student you are…I'm sure they praise you and talk to you all the time…Tell me, Hermione, did your teachers ever mention anything odd to you? Anything that seemed mysterious that they didn't share with the other students?"

Again, Hermione stared. What was Fudge getting at?

Fudge hesitated, as if trying to decide whether or not to continue. Finally, he just said without preamble, "Miss Granger, have the teachers at Hogwarts ever mentioned anything to you, anything at all, about a secret organization called the 'Order of the Phoenix'?"

She shrugged. Her voice was small and frail. "No. I've never heard of it. What is it?"

"Miss Granger," Fudge said impatiently. "As far as the Ministry knows, the Order of the Phoenix is a secret organization of those who want to eliminate the Dark Lord, but in the end, will eliminate us. Frankly, our Ministry believes that some of the teachers at Hogwarts may be members of this Order of the Phoenix. The members of this organization have strange, crazy ideas of making treaties with our mortal enemies so that we can join up with them to destroy the Dark Lord."

"Well, what's wrong with that?" Hermione asked. "As long as they're helping us, why should we-"

Fudge waved his hand and interrupted her impatiently. "Miss Granger, joining up with our enemies, such as the vampires, giants, wraiths, and other misfits of the magical world will be our end. It doesn't matter if they help us destroy the Dark Lord or not. If they are freed from the regions in which they are held captive, they will never be able to be bound again. As soon as they are freed, even if it was believed that they would be our allies, they would destroy us because of their anger. They will be our end if we allow the Order of the Phoenix to make such a corrupt, utterly dangerous treaty and free these misfits."

He demanded, "Now do you know anything about the Order of the Phoenix or not, Miss Granger?"

Again, she shook her head. She said quietly, "No, Mr. Fudge, I don't. I don't believe that the teachers at Hogwarts would ever join any group that would cause harm to other people. They are good and kind, unlike you. They are-"

"SILENCE!" Fudge roared, suddenly jumping. "I will not be spoken to like this by a lying, filthy, stupid, little girl!" He controlled his anger momentarily, his eyes bulging, and a tic going in his temple. He lowered his voice, muttering, "Listen to me, Miss Granger. I am the Minister of Magic, and I am much more significant than you are. I have many more people under my influence than you do. I believe that you are lying to me to protect your precious Hogwarts, your friends, and your teachers because you have silly delusions of what you're doing is brave and good. It is not at all brave or good. You will be the one to kill us all if you don't tell us about this Order of the Phoenix."

Hermione sat frozen in her chair, watching him as he crammed his bowler hat hastily back on his head. 

He said curtly, "When you want to tell me the truth, tell the jailer when he comes to bring you your meal, and he will bring you to come see me." 

He then turned around and began to storm out of the cell. Just before he slammed the heavy stone door, he spoke to her maliciously.

"Oh, you should have a good look around your cell. It is the only thing you'll be seeing for a long time," he hissed.

The heavy door slammed shut with a loud thud, and then the iron gate outside of it squealed shut.

Now Hermione truly was alone and hopeless.


	4. Chapter 4: In Which Harry and Ron Hear o...

Usual disclaimer: IKNOW

(I Know. Nothing Owned. Whatever.)

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Chapter 4: In Which Harry and Ron Hear of Hermione's Disappearance…

News of a Hogwarts's student's disappearance spread through the school like wildfire. Classes were dismissed for the day while the Hogwarts teachers were searching for the missing girl. Most of the students were in their dormitories talking in low, secretive voices, while some stayed in the library or in the Great Hall. Everyone was suspicious of everyone else. Even friends were a little less sociable with each other.

When Harry heard the news of Hermione's disappearance, he couldn't believe it. He had just come down from the fifth year Gryffindor boys' dormitory, fastening his cloak on over his black, billowing robes when he noticed that everyone was crowded in the common room around the fireplace. The common room was usually empty when he came down from the dormitory to go to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Everyone was talking in hushed, fearful, and (for some) excited voices as they stayed in small groups. People were throwing glances anxiously back over their shoulders as if they expected someone to sneak up behind them and snatch them away.

Harry knew something was wrong for sure when he saw Neville Longbottom standing in a corner by himself, his round, pink face streaks with tears.

He hurried over to Neville and asked him, "Neville, what's wrong? Why is everyone just standing here? What happened?"

"Her-Hermione is gone!" Neville stammered tearfully as he tried to speak while sniffling. He looked even more of a nervous wreck than he usually was. "Sh-she's been k-k-kidnapped!"

Harry froze. All thoughts of hunger that he had had only seconds before vanished from his mind. Instead, his mind seemed to go blank with shock. Hermione was gone? But how could this be?

Instantly he bolted back upstairs. When he reached the boys' dormitory, he threw open the door and ran inside. Ron was the only boy still sleeping in the dormitory. Everyone else was up.

"Ron! Ron! Wake up!" Harry cried. "Hermione's been kidnapped!"

Ron rolled over sleepily, rubbed his eyes, and murmured while yawning, "Don't worry. They'll give her back soon…"

He then promptly rolled over and went back to sleep.

"RON!" Harry yelled. "HERMIONE-IS-GONE!"

This time Ron immediately sat up in bed and looked at Harry. He squinted his eyes sleepily as he repeated, "Hermione is gone?"

Harry nodded grimly. "I think Voldemort took her," he said solemnly, "as a way to get to me."

Ron was awake enough to hiss, "Harry, don't say-" 

Suddenly the impact of Harry's message finally came across to Ron. He instantly jumped out of bed.

"Harry! We've got to go look for her!" Ron cried, suddenly panicked as he ran to his trunk at the foot of his bed. He threw open his trunk, pulled out his shoes, and put them on. He put his right shoe on his left foot and vice versa for his other shoe and seemed to take no notice of this. "We've got to find her!"

"Wait, Ron! We don't even know where she might have gone!" Harry called anxiously after him. He then tried reasoning aloud to calm himself and Ron down. He said hopefully while pacing the room. "Maybe she wasn't even kidnapped! Maybe she- I don't know, maybe she just went for a midnight stroll outside of the common room and-"

"What, do you think she got locked in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom or some kind of rubbish like that?" Ron demanded, exasperated, as he ran to the dormitory door with his shoes on the wrong feet. 

"But Ron, we don't even know where to start looking for her!" Harry called after him. "And you've-"

"Just come on, Harry!" Ron said, throwing the dormitory door open and dashing down the stairs.

Harry shook his head and ran downstairs after him. He was all for rescuing Hermione too, but he thought they needed to think more before just dashing around the school blindly searching for her. Also, he thought that Ron needed to change out of his too small, patched up, Weasleys pajamas before they searched for Hermione. 

Loud, jeering, girlish laughter coming up from the common room told Harry that everyone else in the common room had seen Ron dashing valiantly down to rescue Hermione…in his Weasley pajamas, which were knitted by Mrs. Weasley and had a big 'R' on the front of them, and in his shoes that had holes in them (which were usually not noticed because of his long black robes) that were on the wrong feet.

Seconds later, Ron reappeared at the top of the stairs to the boys' dormitory, his face and ears as red as his hair. 

"Let's rescue Hermione…" Ron said slowly, taking a deep breath to try to dispell his embarrassment. He added sheepishly, "…But I think I should wear something different than my pajamas before we start searching for her."

Harry grinned and said, "See you in the common room, Ron." He then made his way down to the common room where the girls were all talking and giggling about Ron's Weasley pajamas. This would be an interesting day indeed.

~*~*~*~*

Later…

Several minutes later after Ron had changed clothes and put his shoes on the right way, Harry and Ron were sitting down in the Great Hall discussing what they should do about Hermione's disappearance after breakfast.

"This is as much as I've learned about Hermione's disappearance from other people," Harry said quietly, leaning forward. "Apparently she disappeared during the night. Parvati Patil said that she thinks she heard her coming to bed around two-thirty in the morning or so. Mind you, Parvati _thinks_ that she heard Hermione coming to bed around that time. It's not certain."

"Why didn't anyone report her disappearance sooner?" Ron demanded.

Harry shook his head. He explained, "No one knew that Hermione was gone until Parvati discovered that Hermione was gone. The kidnapper put a pillow under the blankets of Hermione's bed to make it look like she was still there so that no one would get suspicious. Parvati discovered that Hermione was gone around seven-thirty. So anytime between two-thirty and seven-thirty Hermione was kidnapped."

"Between two-thirty and seven-thirty?!" Ron exclaimed in disbelief. "But that's a broad range of time! She could be anywhere by now! Her kidnapper could have taken her far away from here." He then pondered aloud. "How did a kidnapper get in here?"

"Who knows?" Harry replied, shrugging. "The kidnapper could be anyone. The kidnapper doesn't have to be a stranger. It could have been someone who was already in Hogwarts."

"Like a teacher!" Ron cried. He became excited by his own 'brilliant deduction'. "Of course! A teacher would know all the passwords to the houses, I'm sure!"

"But Ron, even if a teacher did know all the passwords to the houses, the portraits would know that someone had come in the house, and they would have told someone who came in at night," Harry said, trying to reason with him patiently. "The portraits claim that no one came into Gryffindor house at night. So the kidnapper must have gotten inside some other way." He added, "Besides that, why would a teacher kidnap Hermione? It doesn't make sense. Teachers like Hermione. They wouldn't want to kidnap her…"

"But what if Snape kidnapped her?" Ron persisted. "I mean, you know that Dumbledore sent him to go join You-Know-Who as a spy for us. What if You-Know-Who convinced Snape to really join him again and kidnap Hermione since Hermione is a friend of yours as a show of good faith? You know, I bet You-Know-Who would do that. I'm sure of it. You-Know-Who would do that-"

"Oh! Will you please stop it with the You-Know-Whos!" Harry cried, agitated. "I'm sick and tired of all this using 'You-Know-Who'. It's driving me crazy! You-Know-Who kidnapped You-Know-Who and took her You-Know-Where at You-Know-When! For goodness' sakes, can't we just say his name? He isn't going to come swooping down on us if you say his name!"

Ron looked terrified at his audacity. So did many other people who were sitting in the Great Hall staring at him in horror.

"Sorry, people, sorry," Harry muttered appologetically as he put his elbows on the table and ran his hands through his hair. "I'm just getting a little worked up, that's all."

Ron replied when people gradually went back to what they were doing.

"Okay, so how do you think the kidnapper got into the Gryffindor girls' dormitory?" Ron asked, putting aside the subject of the kidnapper's identity. "I mean, he couldn't apparate in here, and I don't think that he could fly up to the dormitory windows and break in…"

"Well, that girl Maria told me that the kidnapper must have gotten in using Floo powder," Harry replied, quieter. "Everyone thinks they used Floo powder because there were Ashwinders in the fireplace that had to be exterminated. Ashwinders are only born when a fire, especially a magical fire like one enhanced by Floo powder, are left burning for long periods of time."

"You're starting to sound like Hermione," Ron said, sounding half-amused and half-annoyed.

"I should after Hermione made me read _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ at least a thousand times before the Care of Magical Creatures final exam," Harry said, shrugging. 

"Harry!" Ron said suddenly, seized by an idea. "What if there's a spell that would make the fireplace in the girls' dormitory take us to the place it took the last person who used Floo powder? Then we would be brought to the exact place where Hermione was taken when she was kidnapped! What d'you think Harry?"

He was silent for a moment, thinking. After a few seconds passed, he looked up and said, "Ron that's a bloody brilliant idea! Let's go rescue Hermione!"

With that, Harry jumped up from the table and bounded out of the Great Hall.

Ron ran after him, yelling, "Hey! That's my line! You stole my line! Get back here!"

~*~*~*~*

A/N: Thanks to all those who reviewed! If I get at least two reviews for this chapter, I'll post the next chapter. ^_~


	5. Chapter 5: In Which Hermione Makes Some ...

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Chapter 5: In Which Hermione Makes Some Odd Acquaintances

Her anguished, desperate shrieks had dwindled down to pathetic whimpers over the past few hours. She hadn't the strength to carry on, and besides, she'd given up all hope of anyone hearing her and letting her out. 

She'd had some hope a few hours ago when her jailer opened the door to her cell and slid a tray into the cell.

"And how am I supposed to eat that while I am tied up?" she asked rather coldly to her jailer.

Her jailer came lumbering over. He was a rather large man, monster-like in proportion with hunched, broad shoulders, and he was stooped over as he walked. Walking seemed to cost him a great effort. He was slow and clumsy, and he threatened to trip with every staggering, lumbering step he took on the hem of his long, black, hooded robes. If he straightened his back, Hermione guessed that he would be as tall as Hagrid. But this man was much more menacing and frightening than Hagrid was.

She started trembling at first when he lumbered over toward her, wondering what he might do to her. But all the giant jailer did was lean down and use a key on a ring to unlock the padlocks holding her down. He fumbled with the key because his fingers were so big and clumsy. The key looked like a jagged, little, iron toothpick in his massive hand. Once he unlocked all the chains, which slithered off of her like iron snakes and clanked loudly on the floor, he deftly snapped the ropes binding her by jerking them with one finger.

Hermione cried out softly in pain and shock (mostly in shock) because the ropes had crushed her tightly in their winding, constricting, serpentine grasp for a second when the jailer snapped the ropes. She instantly sighed with relief and relaxed when the ropes fell off. 

The jailer looked down at her, grunted, then turned and lumbered away, the floor shaking slightly under his heavy footfall. He slammed the door behind him with one hand and then shut the iron gate. A second later, she heard the metallic clink of the key turning in the lock. His retreating footsteps followed that.

Hermione listened intensely until his booming footsteps died away in the distance. As soon as she was sure he was gone, she heaved another great sigh of relief. She tried to stand up, but her legs were asleep from inertia. Instead, she collapsed clumsily to the floor, moaning slightly. Raising her head from the filthy, damp, stone floor, she made a highly undignified scramble for the tray of food lying on the ground by slithering on her belly across the floor.

She saw that the food in the tray was highly unappatizing. It was (what looked like) a stale, moldy piece of bread, some very thin, watery soup, and muddy water all tossed into one tray. But she didn't care. Food was food, and she had been starving ever since she had come around. Without a second thought, she began hungrily gobbling down the food.

As she ate, she thought about Hogwarts and wondered what time it was…

__

Maybe it's lunchtime, she thought wistfully. _Maybe Harry and Ron are eating good food, good, hot, fresh food while I'm sitting here in this cell eating what could be someone's leftovers from years ago…_

__

But that good food they're eating is food prepared by slave labor. Hermione mentally argued with herself. _Poor house elves are forced to be cooking and cleaning day and night, and they've been brainwashed into believing that what they're doing is what they should be doing and it pleases them…At least here the food probably isn't prepared by house elves. The food's probably prepared by…whoever that jailer is_…

She grimaced to think that her jailer was also the cook here. He seemed unsanitary, and she doubted whether he had any refined culinary skills. 

While she ate, she observed her surroundings again for the thousandth time. She knew it was hopeless to try to escape, but she had to try. There were no openings anywhere in the cell, (except for a hole in the corner for the bathroom, but the smell was too overwhelming for her to go near it except when it was absolutely necessary) no vents, no windows, nothing. Only stone, four very solid walls made of stone and the drip, dripping of water, and murmuring…

Murmuring? She could hear murmuring, faint, hardly audible murmuring, but it was murmuring. Hermione strained her ears to hear…

The murmuring was coming from one of the walls of her cell. It sounded like a man's voice, but it was hushed and soft, quick and vehement, as if he was plotting something and was afraid that someone would overhear if he spoke too loudly.

"Oh yes…oh yes…We'll escape from here one day, won't we, Dylan?" the murmurer muttered to himself. "Yes, indeed we will, Dylan…Then we can go back, Dylan, yes, we can, and then we can go get revenge on the bad one, yes! Yes, indeed we will, Dylan…."

Once she was sure that it was an actual voice she was hearing and not just her ears playing tricks on her or the trickling of water, she called out loudly, desperately.

"Hello?" she called out as loudly as she dared. "Hello! I'm here!" Then realizing how stupid that sounded, she crawled over to the wall and called, "Another prisoner is here in the cell beside yours." She was just guessing that the person was in another cell. "Who are you?"

The murmuring suddenly stopped. For a moment, Hermione feared that she had scared whoever it was away.

"Are you still there?" she asked anxiously. 

Silence for a moment. Then-

"Who are you, we asks, don't we, Dylan? Curious, curious, yes, very curious, aren't we, Dylan?"

"I'm Hermione Granger. I'm just a little girl," she replied hesitantly. At fifteen, she had thought she was anything but a little girl, but now that she was in this hopeless situation, she saw how much of a helpless little girl she really was… She asked, "Who are you?"

"We are…" There was a short pause. 

Hermione held her breath fearfully.

"Aldyn and Dylan, yes, we are, aren't we?"

She was silent; the names meant nothing to her.

"Oh, will you please stop talking to yourself for once, Aldyn?" another man's voice cried in exasperation. It sounded completely different from the first man's voice. This man's voice was deeper, richer. It sounded more cultured than the other man's voice. This man sounded like he could have been a Hogwarts teacher.

"Not talking to ourselves," Aldyn replied, sounding hurt. "Talking to…" He paused as if he was struggling to remember her name. "Talking to…Squigglybee."

Hermione silently slapped herself in the face as she shook her head helplessly. It had been bad enough when Viktor Krum of the professional Bulgarian Quidditch team had been calling her 'Her-my-own-ninny', and now she had some nutter calling her 'Squigglybee'.

"Squigglybee," she muttered to herself. "Hermione…Squiggly-bee…Her-mi-on-e…"

She shrugged. The syllables sounded somewhat similar.

"Squigglybee?" the other man repeated, half-curiously, half in disgust. "Is Squigglybee your new invisible friend?"

"No, no, not our new invisible friend, a real friend," Aldyn hissed quietly. Then to himself just out of habit's sake, "Yes…. Yes, indeed we are, aren't we, Dylan?"

Hermione called out loudly, "Hello! Aldyn? Are you still there?"

"Merlin's beard! There really is someone there, isn't there?" the other man cried out in astonishment. "Hullo! Who's there?"

"My name's Hermione Granger! I'm a student at Hogwarts, and I was kidnapped and brought here!" she replied loudly. She didn't go into details. She wasn't sure if he would believe her about Fudge kidnapping her. "Who are you?"

There was a cautious silence before the man replied, "My name is Meremor, Meremor Valoniloily."

~*~*~*~*

Meremor Valoniloily's pronounciation of his name: Mer-ee-more Va-lon-il-oy-lee.

(I know…A lot of syllables and vowels in his last name, huh?)

Please R&R.

And for those of you who are curious, I'm still working on chapters for 'I am Tom Riddle' and 'The Dream Within'. They should be up soon. ^_~


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